Dreams
by ElizabethDaughterOfAthena
Summary: The war with Gaea was over, but the fighting never stopped. The outside world, the one where the light of the sun outshines the darkness of the memories, is one that is seldom revealed. However, in the darkness of the night, the memories can resurface, hanging on to any thread of insecurity they can find. This is my rendition of a percabeth, caleo, and jiper epilogue.
1. The Begining

Percy Jackson Fanfiction: Jiper-Percabeth-Leachine-Frazel-Squico-Gruniper pairings: Story Type all right to Elizabeth Chase 15, 2014 romance\adventure\family Fathom That: Fandoms

_Annabeth_

The air was thin, for the storm was to begin momentarily. How I knew that was a mystery, I was a daughter of Athena, but weather predictions were usually left to the mortals, unless you were a demigod that was not afraid of burning to death. The Titans were approaching, and there was nothing I could do, for my knife was not in its regular pocket. Percy. He was out in the middle of the battle, fighting Luke himself. I did the one thing I could do, I ran at Luke and swung my arms around his neck in a choke hold. I had won, or so I thought. Luke started morphing into Percy, and soon enough, I had a green eyed Percy in my arms. He was suffocating, and in turn I took away my hold, but his expression did not change. He was going to die if I didn't stop this soon. Finally, he began to talk, but not in a good way.

"Why me, Annabeth?" he started," I thought you loved me. I was wrong. You are no better than Luke, always asking for favors. Has it ever occurred to you that I might want my own life instead of spending all of my time with some conceded so called," Wise Girl," or should I even call you that?" Percy's voice was wrong, he sounded like a robot with a monotone setting. He also sounded like Luke, and formed urged me to form thoughts that I had sworn never to fathom about ever since the Titan war had finished.

"Percy, you don't mean that…" I tried.

"_Oh, but I do Annabeth, Don't you think I would have had a better life had you not made me take a trip into Tartarus? Without you, my life would be so much simpler, maybe I wouldn't drool when I slept, what kind of stupid comment is that anyway? "_After that, he began attacking Piper. He ripped into her skin and left a deep gash, and I knew what I had to do. I had to kill Percy, or let Piper die. I couldn't chose. I screamed, for while deciding whether or not to kill Percy, he had changed back into Luke, leaving Percy on the ground, looking limp and pale. I couldn't bring myself to say that he looked dead. That's when I had felt Luke's hand on my shoulder, or so I thought.

The hand on my shoulder was Gracie's, and she was looking at me with an odd expression. Percy sat at the foot of my bed, and he appeared as if he had seen a ghost. His face was lined with worry, but not for long, because he had flung his arms around me before I could ask him if he was actually dead. Based on the warm and tender aura emanating from his arms around my waist, he probably wasn't dead, and the feat I had just experienced was probably a nightmare, I have had many since my return from the war on Gaea. Percy was slightly suffocating me, but I didn't mind; the look on his face when I had woken up was enough to make me accept that dying of suffocation was an acceptable fate to have when in fact, the cause of suffocation was my over-protective boyfriend. When he pulled away, he looked into my eyes, causing me to get lost in his. They were the perfect shade of sea-green, and matched his personality perfectly. The staring was short-lived, for soon he pulled my back in and cupped his hands around my face. I thought he was going to kiss me, but he didn't, I'm pretty sure the overprotective part of him kicked in, for he started firing off questions to me, most of which I didn't catch, for the Seaweed brain wouldn't shut his mouth for more than ten seconds. Finally the gibberish stopped, and Percy started speaking English again.

"Want to talk about it?" he asked. What? No, I was most definitely not talking about this with him after that kind of a dream. Percy seemed to finally get the message, and I took this as my cue to lean in. His lips met mine, and lingered for a long time, but not long enough, for one of my brothers had to yell out, "Hey, sis, you and sea-scum, get a room!" Classic children of Athena had enough sense to hold a grudge with the same people our mother had held a grudge with for so many years. I was not one of those people, hence the reason I was in love with the offspring of my mother's enemy. When I looked up, I noticed it was time to head to breakfast before my archery lesson with our new instructor, Alexa, a daughter of Apollo. I found it stupid that campers in the same cabin had to sit together and were not able to sit with anyone else. I had always hated the rule, but now that Percy was my boyfriend, and Piper and Jason had decided to stay at CHB while camp Jupiter was being rebuilt, I hated it even more.

Breakfast was boring, and went quickly, for 12 out of the 14 kids of Athena had started shunning me since I had started dating Percy, the only one's still talking to me were my younger sisters, Emilie and Kathryn, who were too young to understand the concept of "Thy Mother's enemy is thy own enemy." After I was done eating, I made my way to archery, but not before having a run in with the Seaweed brain himself. He stopped me about half way to the class, I was just passing by the Ares cabin.

"Annabeth," I heard, "Wise Girl, slow down a bit!" The nickname strikes again. "Annabeth, I wanted to talk to you about this morning. Are you okay, you were pretty deep into the world of nightmares?" Really? Hadn't notices at all. Not like I was the one _in _the dream or anything. Reading my sarcastic expression, he took this time to explain what he had meant.

"I just wanted to say, this has been a frequently appearing problem, not only with you, but with me also. I just wanted to see how you were doing, and apologize for whatever I did to you in that dream that made you look at me like a Titan trying to take your head off. I would never do anything to hurt you, you know that, right?"

"Yeah," I started, "it was just a dream I guess, but those stupid thing seem so real, I had to make sure you were alive and not some Percy robot 2.0 or something stupid like that."

"Wise Girl, how could I ever leave you? I would never die without telling you that I loved you first."Then he kissed me, not like before, this time he kissed me hard and long, not leaving any love for me go unsaid, and in return, I did the same, not caring how late I was to archery, all that mattered was right here, right now. And that, I was grateful for.

So apart from the horrid dreams, interesting wake-up, silent breakfast, cheesy comments, and minor snogging session in the middle of the woods, my morning had been pretty normal as a Demi-God's morning can go. The one thing on my mind throughout the day were my parents. I hadn't seen them for three years, and they probably had a sneaking suspicion that I was dead, and maybe, deep down in the twisted heart of my step-mother, she missed me a little. Bobby must have been scared, for even now he was only twelve, and was dealing with adult-like problems. No one here, or connected to the camp had a normal life. Dome of the kids here as young as nine have seen more pain and suffering than most mortal adults could see in a lifetime. I also thought of Sally, Percy's mother, who had probably not heard of Percy since, well, who knows when. Sally was most likely more of a mess than my parents were, all she had were Paul, and Percy. She and him had been together for a long time, and then all of the sudden , we were gone, even out friends thought we were dead when we landed in _that place._ I have yet to work up the confidence to say the full word of the place that must not be named. Percy and I had been through the deepest pits of Tartarus and back, and that was not a trip easily recovered from.

I was still underweight, due to the fact that the place that is not to be named, does not exactly have a McDonalds set up at every other corner, which is surprising, considering how much the dead love that place, evident through Nico's conversations with the dead. I was still covered in scars that still bled on occasion. They were ugly, repulsive maybe, possibly even scary looking to those who know nothing of my story. Percy hated them, not because they were ugly, but because they reminded him of the hits I had taken while he had enabled me to get hurt. The stupid Seaweed Brain thought that this was all his fault. These scars were all mine, sitting on my skin as a reminder that I had survived, and had survived fighting. Anyone (Percy) who said otherwise was just kidding themselves.

I wonder what my parents will think of them. Most likely they will blame Percy, using their typical overprotective father of the girlfriend kind of mindset. They would be repulsed. It was one thing to have a Demigod, who has seen many other's battle scars judge your scars. It was another thing to have a mortal parent, who is unexperienced for the most part, look at your scars from a battle they didn't know was going on. I might not tell them about the scars, but my parents had every right in the world to know why they hadn't seen me in nearly two years. I had to go see them, but a week without Percy was not a subject I wanted to think about. The nightmares would come, and instead of having Percy just across the camp, Percy would be half way across the country. I wouldn't be able to sleep for a week, but asking my step Mom if I could stay for the week would be hard enough. Asking her, and my dad for that matter, if my boyfriend could stay for the week too, was _really_ pushing things. What had to be done, had to be done, and there was no other way around it.

To rid my mind of the idea that I would have to leave Percy for at least a week, I decided to go and hack some ligaments off of the training dummies. You wouldn't think that killing fake items would blow off steam, but it does. I was only going to say this once, but, well, Octavian might have had a, here comes the bad part, _good_ idea. Wow that felt weird even to think. It was relaxing, and it let my mind wander to whatever it felt like thinking about, and in this case, that was anything but the talk I was to have later with my Seaweed Brain. I gave different names to the dummies too, including Gaea, Arachne, Kronos, Octavian, spider number one, spider number two, and completely headless Nick. I hit my target every time, and with more power each time my blade crashed into the soft filling of the fake, well, whatever it was at the moment I was hacking my knives with it. After about a good three hours destroying my now limbless dummies, I set off to find Percy.

The Seaweed Brain was too predictable, he is always at the lake, with me, on a quest, or hacking off innocent practice dummies. Since I was the only one in the area, he was obviously at the lake, probably talking to his dad, or something like that. I walked down to the waterfront, and sure enough, there Percy was, making tiny waves crash to the shore, turn back, and descend into the lake again. I walked up silently, and being a daughter of Athena, of course I planned how to alert my focused idiot that I was present. Finally I just decided to plain out say "hello", so I did.

"Hey, Seaweed Brain." I figured that was about as normal of an announcement as any.

"Hello, Miss Wise Girl," He said, while giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. "And what do I owe you the pleasure of on this fine afternoon?" Typical Seaweed Brain, as stupid and clueless as ever.

"Well," I started. "I was thinking, when was the last time you saw your Mother?"

"Umm…" He started. His eyes lit up, as if he had just realized what I had been hinting towards. "Oh Gods Annabeth, I haven't seen her in almost two years!" Ah ha, so he does use his empty skull every once in a while. "They must think I'm dead." The sentence came out with such a sense of defeat, I couldn't help but feel sorry for him, even if my parents were going through the same thing.

"I was thinking, next week, it might be a good idea to maybe, go see our parents. I'll go see my Dad and step Mom, and you can go see your Mom and Paul."

"No. Absolutely not."

"What? "No. You can see your parents, but I am waiting for you to get back before I see mine. I want you to come with me. My Mom is going to kill me if I don't bring you with me, she cares just as much for your wellbeing as she does mine." He did have a point. Plus, after a week without Percy, I got to have a week with _**just **_Percy. I agreed to this plan, on one condition, I got to pay for groceries for the week, of however long Percy and I decide to stay.

_Percy_

A week. She was leaving me for a week. She already left. She will be gone for a week. She was right, as always, that her parents had every right in the world to get an explanation for why their daughter had been gone for nearly two years. I know that. I just thought two week would be calmer than the torture that I am endearing at the moment with her gone. I love her. It was so easy to say in my head. If only it was that easy to say when I am talking out loud. I missed her more than I ever thought possible. I was so tired, beyond the point of simple exhaustion, yet I couldn't sleep. Not without knowing she was safe.

I rolled over in bed and looked at my clock. _2:45_. I hadn't slept a wink since I first lied down. Questions raged in my mind, trying to get out of my head and make it into reality. I wondered if she was sleeping either. I didn't know where she was exactly, and it was driving me crazy. I didn't want to go to bed knowing the nightmares would come back to haunt me, and show me those I had killed, or let die in battle. I couldn't face them. Not without her here. When she or I had a nightmare, we would go over to each other's cabin, first to make sure we were still breathing, and if the nightmares were too bad, go to the lake shore of the lake to talk about them. We had never not been there, well, since after _that_ place at least. Jason got them too. Piper was the lucky one. No one knew why, but she was the only person not to have nightmares.

I finally gave up on sleep, if it wasn't going to happen, there was no use in forcing it. I didn't care if it was 2:00 in the morning anymore. I couldn't spend a whole week like this, I was done. I walked over to the fountain and threw in a drachma.

"Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, show me Annabeth Chase, Seattle." The picture was fuzzy for a moment, but then it came in clearer. She was there. My Wise Girl. Oh Gods it felt good to see her, just to look at her and know she was still living on the face of this planet. But one thing that I did notice, she was curled up on, what looked like her Dad's couch, reading a book about modern architecture. I guess I wasn't the only one awake at this hour.

"Hey, Miss Annabeth." Annabeth jumped up about five feet, and put her dagger in front of her face, daring anyone to pick a fight with her. That was, until she noticed me on the Iris messaging screen. Now she just looks mad.

"What are you doing awake, Seaweed Brain? Shouldn't you be in bed? What are you doing? Don't you know my whole _mortal_ family is here? If they saw you…"

"Relax, Wise Girl, no one is going to see us, not at this time of night. Speaking of which, why are you still awake? I found it funny that you asked me that question, when you, yourself were sitting on the couch, reading that fancy book of yours." At this comment, her face went red. Not because of being caught, but most likely because I had pointed out something that she had not noticed, which was completely unlike her.

"I think I might be awake for the same reason that you are."

Then, at nearly the same time we both said, "It's the nightmares." Any normal person would have broken out in a laughing fit, thinking it strange to say the same thing at the same time. I knew better than that. This was no laughing matter. She looked at me, and I stared back into her beautiful gray eyes. I swear, maybe I could breathe underwater, but every time I looked directly into her eyes, I could feel what I think it would be like to drown, trying to get out, but it ends up being no use, you could be stuck there forever.

"I'm sorry I'm not there, I was being dumb. I should ha-" But I cut her off. There was no way I was letting her think that it was a bad idea to visit her parents. This was something we had to do, plus, when we got older, we would be kicked out of camp, and unless I worked up the courage to propose, she wasn't going to live next door. We would have to learn to control the nightmares, and eventually get rid of them.

"Wise Girl, you have a nickname for a reason. We had to do this, it wasn't a choice. They deserve to know. After we can go to my Mom's house, we can both stay there, together, for as long as she'll have us. We'll be even closer together, not across the camp, only across the hall. But they have to know the whole story. Not just little parts. Have you told them yet?" She looked as if she had been avoiding this question.

"Well, most of it. My story. Our story. That _place_, the war, pretty much any details that I can remember. Not the scars. They would be so mad at you, and me for that matter. I can't tell them. They would never look at me the same way. Not now, and not ever again."

_Please deposit one drachma for an additional five minutes. _After depositing the dam coin, (pun intended) I continues my conversation with Annabeth.

"Anyway, so no, I haven't told them about the scars."

"Good, I don't want to see their faces when they realize that this is all my fault." It was. I wasn't there when she needed me, and I had let her attain those me, she would be completely safe.

"Shut up Seaweed Brain. These are all mine. I'd love to talk to you all night, but I think I hear my brother getting up. See you soon. Love you." Then she disconnected.

I whispered back the words I didn't have the courage to say to her face. _I love you, too._

I had taken up the position of the swordplay teacher at camp, which made my life way more difficult than it already is. Not only do I have to go on quests 24-7, I also have to teach a bunch of insane little brats how to hold and control a sword. Don't get me wrong, I love kids just as much as any of the Aphrodite girls, but _these_ specific kids were a bit of a challenge; mostly because they all acted like I did when I was their age. Usually I had Annabeth to help me, but this week, I was alone. That lasted about ten minutes, then I wanted to crush all of these losers under a rock. Preferably a large one. I had to call for help, and of course, Mr. Cool Guy had to show the little ones who was boss.

Leo had been previously, "working out", but I knew better. I would say he was probably scraping the leftover syrup from breakfast off of his plate. I found out soon enough, that when Leo said "help", he meant show off in front of people who don't really care. So, the lesson went like this:

"Hey kids! Who wants to see Leo the Amazing Macho Manly Man do something amazingly manly that none of you punks can do!?" Of course, Leo had not gotten an answer. But, as always, that did not even make a dent in his big head.

"So, as I can see, all of you are soooo excited to see my awesomeness. I don't think half of you will ever be as awesome as I am at the moment. Want to bet? I have like two drachmas in my pocket at the moment." After that, I cut him off. The Leo show was over. It was time to do actual work, and you know, teach the kids something that won't leave them scarred for the rest of their lives.

"Okay now. All of you need to get in line, one at a time, and show me what we practiced yesterday. I want to see who has been putting their skills to use on the training dummies, and whose ears let information go in one side and go out the other."

Leo, of course, wanted to be involved in this, so he suggested the kids tried to beat the "Supreme Master of Awesomeness". Maybe, just maybe, letting him help me may pay off in more ways than one. So of course, I told him that was fine, as long as he didn't kill any of the campers. He was disappointed to hear the rule, but agreed to it nonetheless.

The matches started off well. Erin had somehow managed to knock Leo's sword out of his hand, but of course, he blamed it on "The Wind Spirit he broke up with last month that wanted his hotness back". By the time Johnathan got up, Leo had beaten nine out of my twelve campers. Each time, after he beat someone, all I could hear was, "Oh yeah, team Leo scores again!" That went on for a while, until the next opponent shut him up.

I could tell he was finally getting tired when he started letting the campers win. The whole time he was singing, "This boy is on FIIIRRRRREEEEEEE, this boy is on FIIIRRRREEE, He's just a boy and he's on FIRE…" then he would light his sword on fire, and scare the living daylight out of the kid he was fighting. After class, I had a little conversation with him about kids and what the mortal police would do to you if they see you doing that out in public. I feel bad, but I almost want to see that. We talked for a while, and then he decided that he wanted to go see Piper. I had no idea why, but I had a feeling that I was about to find out. I wish I hadn't.

He had wanted to talk to Piper about getting a tattoo. A real one that read "cool guy" and "bad boy". I can only imagine my Mom's reaction when she realizes that I have a tattoo. Well, that is if I live long enough to see it. I couldn't wait. Five days left. Five days, and I would see my beautiful Wise Girl. Five days and I would see my Mom. Five days and my life would be significantly better than it is today. Five days and I won't have to listen to Leo talk about himself for a long time. I can only imagine what a beautiful world that will be. I am kind of worried that when I get back to camp that Leo might have an armful of macho man sayings. If only my Mom and Paul could see him. They would think I had brought the traveling circus to New York, but then again, a freak show would be more likely.

I could already taste the blue cookies and pancakes. I couldn't wait to smother (they can't drown) them with sugar. Annabeth has yet to taste fresh blue cookies. Even she would be impressed, and that doesn't happen often. I would have to do something with Grover before I left. I hadn't seen him in what felt like forever.

I remember the days, just Annabeth, Grover and I. Ha. And we thought our lives could only get better after the Titan war. Oh how wrong we were. I heard that Juniper had been doing well lately, at least from what the King of the Wild had told me about life in the kingdom of Pan. It's funny, how ignorant you are when you're young, how positive always outweighs the negative. How you always believed in the magical forces your parents told you about, because you wanted to believe and savor every word they told you. You always had some on looking out for you, to wipe your chin when you were dirty, to dry your tears when you got hurt. To love you, throughout everything, and protect you against the imaginary monster in your closet. It's funny how all of that was fake, yet I was more scared of the mysterious forces under my bed than I ever have been of a three headed Hydra.

Youth is beautiful ignorance, and it should be. Because the real world is more real than anyone could ever imagine. The people who you think you'll trust forever suddenly betray you. The people you love get hurt. Friends die. But life goes on, not easily, but somehow people always pull through. Well, most of the time. Occasionally you'll find a loner that never forgot the suffering of a neighbor, the death of a lover, or the betrayal of a friend. Those who get through are the lucky ones, because most of our pain feeds on us until the day we die. The kind of pain we never forget, that it would be impossible to forget.

I like to believe I haven't been exposed to the real world yet.

But that would be a lie.

_Annabeth _

It was going to be a long week. Stupid brothers. Stupid life. Stupid Seaweed Brain that thought that I would be okay on my own. As much as I absolutely despise saying this, I needed Percy. It was not a, "Oh, I love Percy soooooooooo much, I can't possibly spend a week without seeing his oh-so-pretty face," as much as a, "I really hope that Seaweed Brain is okay, and the nightmares that are constantly there are keeping me up at night, and I really hope that Percy is not having the same dreams." I hate this. I thought I was done with the pain. I thought I was done going into battle only to watch all of my friends die painful deaths, yet I watch them die over and over again every night. I couldn't take much more of it. I really couldn't.

Why my life is like this, I will never know, but I do know, that every once in a while, you find a beam of sunlight through the shaded window of emotion. This was one of those moments. My idiotic brothers were running around the halls, reenacting one of Percy, Grover, and I's first quests. Both of my brothers were a bit obsessed with Percy, and luckily neither knew of our relationship. Anyway, so the crazed battle went a little like this:

"Ahhhhhhhhh! Get off of me! I get to be Percy! You were Percy last time!" Yes, my brothers were fighting over who got to be the Seaweed Brain. I couldn't believe how entirely clueless they were to the fact that there were two other people on the quest. Or maybe Percy was the only desired role, and Grover and I were just the role for the unlucky brother that didn't get the part that he wanted.

"No, no, no! Stop lying, Matthew! I get to be Percy because I am the fastest and I am older than you!" This battle of parts went on for about fifteen minutes, but right in the middle of the fighting, the real Percy showed up on the kitchen table. Not literally, but the Iris message just happened to appear there.

"Hey, Annabeth! Sorry if this is a bad time, I just, well…missed you. How are you? Are you okay? Is your Step Mom treating you alright? Are you hurt? Gods, please tell me that you're not hurt." I didn't catch half of what he said, but now I knew he was in the same state that I was.

"Okay, slow down there Seaweed Brain, I am completely fine. Not a scratch on me, besides a small scrape from the time Matthew got me with his oh-so-dangerous sword." Just then my brothers turned around, only to see Percy and I in "deep" conversation. They immediately took this as a cue to come in and join the conversation.

"Hey Percy! How are you? We haven't seen you in, like, forever!" After that, they smothered him in so many questions I was surprised his small head caught any of them.

"SO Percy, what is it like in battle? I heard that you fell down a really dangerous deep hole of black death! What was it like down there? Oh, wait, tell us about the labyrinth! What was it like down there? Oh wait, tell us about Argo II, Annie never tells us anything!" I swear to the Gods, if they ever use that nickname again, they will be dead faster than a stuffed pillow pet in the arms of Octavian.

"Whoa, slow down you guys, do you mind if I just talk to Annabeth for a second?" Oh no, he was asking to be brutally murdered by my siblings. From my few years of experience, I've learned a few things. One being that these little demons don't take no for an answer.

"Why don't you want to hang out with us?" They pulled off their best "I am just a poor little baby in need of some love and candy and whatever else I want" smiles, but Percy knew better than to fall for that, he was a little more immune to the "I want this" stare than he was to my "I will kill you slowly and painfully if you do not do as I want."

"Well, because your sister will most likely murder me if I do not talk with her _alone _about this subject." Ah, he know me too well. Maybe the seaweed in his brain was finally dissolving.

"He's right boys," I added. "If you don't want to be after Percy, I suggest moving over."

"Fine, but first he has to tell us the best reward he ever got for being a hero on one of his quests." Hmm. That was fair game. I guess I was okay with that. One question couldn't hurt. Wrong.

"Fine," Percy said. "The best prize that I have ever gotten as a reward for finishing a quest was a kiss from your sister. Can you guys leave now?" Oh Gods, he had no idea what he had done to me. I immediately had two new pairs of eyes on me. Yep, the seaweed was still there.

"You _kissed_ Percy! Oh my God! You looooove him! Ha, I bet he already has a girlfriend too, but you still kissed him!"

"Yeah boys, I actually _do _already have a girlfriend." Oh, so now he was just going to make my life miserable, well, more than it already was.

"Who, who? Percy pleeeeaaaaaassssseeeee tell us!" They were young, and so beautifully ignorant. Why Percy, why do you have to ruin this? "Well, she is your sister of course. Why do you think she kissed me? For the fun of it?" That shut them up. Momentarily. Then they paraded around the house singing, "Annie has a boyfriend." Really? There was only one thing left to say. "I am seriously going to kill you, Seaweed Brain."

_Percy _

She was coming home. My Wise Girl would be in my arms within a couple hours. Gods, I loved her. It was impossibly hard to say that out loud though, for reasons that I cannot possibly explain. The thoughts formed in my head, but somehow the words couldn't make it through my lips. As badly as I wanted to say those three simple words, whenever I tried to make the words come, my mouth would turn to sandpaper and my body would freeze up. I was truly a hopeless case.

The wait was killing me. The defining silence seemed to never end, each minute feeling like an hour, each hour turning into the weight of days. Who knows what days will feel like, I have yet to have a whole day of waiting with this kind of anticipation. I was sitting in my empty cabin, but that whole "sitting and acting as calm as possible" thing was not really what I am known for. I starting pacing, and that pacing continued until I was no longer able to even attempt to clear my head. The small stretch of beach at the edge of the camp was the only place that could ever really calm me down, well, besides Annabeth. The beach seemed the obvious solution right? Well, maybe not…maybe the forest would be a better place. Or maybe I should go to the stables? Oh Gods, I really do have a Seaweed Brain. Oh well, the beach it is…or maybe I should actually go somewhere for once, you know, see the world or something. That's it! I should go to the Hoover Dam! That was a pretty good idea…but then I might miss Annabeth's arrival. Okay, it's official, I am now going to the beach, and not even the end of the world could stop me, but yet again, the end of the world has been a majorly occurring problem, and a new threat planned to do so like, every five years to be exact.

I started down the beach like nothing could ruin my perfect day, and as you could guess, that was short lived. I'm not saying that I wasn't happy to see Tyson, I'm just saying that he disrupted the peace. I was certainly not expecting a visit from anyone else besides Annabeth today, and it certainly wasn't like my brother to show up unannounced, he always at the very least sent an Iris message stating that he would be with me in a little less than an hour. I guess not this time. I suddenly herd the low pitched, yet very loud voice of none other than Tyson.

"Brother! Brother! Over here! Guess what? Rainbow told me a secret she learned while swimming in the Mississippi river!" Being the good older brother that I was, I played along with the whole, "I am completely ignorant to the fact that my girlfriend is coming back today".

"What is it, Tyson?"

"Annie is coming to visit today! And guess what?" Tyson wasted no time telling me what his exciting news was. "I am going to welcome her back with you! We should through a party with big balloons and Rainbow can come too!" Wow, I will admit it, this guy knows how to welcome a girl home, but what I had in mind was a little more personal, and well, a bit smaller. As in, we say hello, kiss and hug, get caught up, and then pack our bags and leave for my Mom's the next morning. I am kind of nervous about what she will think I did to Annabeth while we were away. Don't get me wrong, she was as beautiful as ever, just a little…unhealthy looking, a little on the skinny and scarred side, not that I wasn't either.

"Tyson that sounds like a great idea, buddy, but Annabeth will be here in less than an hour, I just don't know if we will have time to plan a whole party." Tyson was in the middle of making sad, whiny noises when another voice joined the conversation.

"What are you two idiots talking about? You better not be talking about throwing a party, cause I guess I just ruined the surprise." Annabeth. That beautiful know-it-all voice never came from anyone but a true daughter of Athena, and my highly controlling girlfriend. She was here. She was really here. It took all of my self-control to not scream her name.

We both ran at each other at the same time. She leaped into my arms and I spun her around, and ended my fantastically awesome move with kissing her senseless. I poured all of my built up emotions into the kiss, letting her know just how much I had missed her. When I finally pulled back, I noticed her eyes. They were bloodshot and were circled by a dark ring of blue that showed the lack of sleep she had gotten whilst she was at her Dad's. From the look on her face, I knew that she probably saw what I had just seen on my eyes, proving that neither of us had gotten a night's worth of decent sleep in a long time. Hopefully they went away before we got to my Mom's.

"Gods, I missed you so much, Seaweed Brain." Even with the circles around her eyes she still looked incredibly beautiful.

"I missed you too, Wise Girl. You know, it's nice to feel appreciated."

"Don't get used to it, Perseus Jackson. You need to go pack for your Mom's."

"So do you missy."

"Actually, I am already packed, so hurry up Seaweed Brain." Typical Annabeth, prepared for anything, and I spend a week at camp doing nothing, and still manage to be less prepared than she is.

I obeyed Annabeth, because Gods forbid she doesn't get what she wants, because her needs can change from wanting me to pack to wanting my head on a silver plate in a matter of seconds. Plus, Tyson needed some time to say hello.

At last I could sleep peacefully, or so I thought.

_Annabeth_

Oh my Gods. If I hear, "Are we there yet?" one more time I will personally take out my knife and kill my boyfriend. It was _his _Mother's house, shouldn't _he _be the one telling _me_ if we are there yet? I swear, one more time, and it will be Percy-go-bye-bye. This boy is driving me crazy, and we are only two hours into the car ride. Percy and I left at about ten. I was afraid that Chiron would not approve of starting this late, but he understood when we said that we wanted to not have to sleep in a hotel overnight. You never knew who or what you can find at those things, so I thought we would play it safe and not find out. I am kind of regretting that choice now, but at least Percy is tired enough to sleep, which I predict he will be doing about five minutes from now.

Wait, do I turn left or right here? Dam directions, who knows what they want me to do. If they were in Greek I might be able to read them, but no such luck, they were in English. Holy Zeus, I was hungry. I hadn't eaten in, oh, about a day. Both Percy and I skipped out on dinner to plan this trip as quickly as we could, but now I was second guessing myself. I debated on pulling off the road and onto a McDonald's, but that could be dangerous. It would be like saying, "_Oh, hello there. My demigod friend and I are wondering if you have any dangerous monsters back there, because we would really like a hamburger and a really bloody fight. Oh, you're all out of those? That's just too bad._" Going out at night was dangerous enough, like we didn't have any trouble already. But, yet again, I was really hungry. Well, maybe just a bite, you know, quick-in quick-out. I looked back, and saw that Percy was asleep, just as I thought he would be. Gods, that boy was a heavy sleeper, the Seaweed Brain was completely dead to the world.

I took about three more rights, hoping that is what the directions would want me to do, because I am now completely lost. That was a statement that I, as a daughter of Athena, did not say very often. I was so annoyed at that point that I actually considered waking Percy up and asking him. But yet again, he wouldn't have any idea where to go, being in the dark. A light blinked on the car, and I jumped about two inches in the air. I still was not completely satisfied with my understanding of this car, for when you live in New York half the time, you take a taxi pretty much everywhere. Luckily I understood this little warning, because it was telling me I needed fuel, and fast. I found the nearest exit, but not without a little struggling. Being ADHD and dyslexic does not exactly make reading the road signs a walk in the park.

I pulled up to the station and got out, but not without waking the Seaweed Brain and informing him that if he needed to get something, this was the time. He bounded into the store, leaving me curios, but not worried. Whatever that kid was off to do, he knew what he was doing and what he wanted, so I let him be. About ten minutes later, Percy showed up with a bag full of something. I really had no idea what the guy wanted at twelve at night. I couldn't help it that I was curios. I had to know what was in there.

"So, Seaweed Brain, what did you get?" I really was generally curios.

"Not much, some food, a coke, oh, and a panda Pillow Pet." What? Seriously! I got that he wanted a snack and a Coke, but really? Was a Pillow Pet all that necessary? I was a total waste of money where I was concerned, and we never had enough of that even to complete a full Iris message when we wanted to.

"Really, Percy? We are in the middle of a trip, we will be at your Mom's in four hours, and you want a Pillow Pet?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, they are pretty comfortable, and besides, Octavian viciously murdered my last one." Such a Seaweed Brain, but I really couldn't blame him, the car was a little hard to sleep in. He looked at me for a moment, as if trying to read my thoughts, and then said something even more stupid than this whole Pillow Pet conversation.

"You look exhausted. We should really spend the rest of the night at a hotel." As you could imagine, this got a pretty good reaction out of me.

"You idiot! Do you know what would happen if we went there? There could literally be a Hydra staying in the room next to us, and we wouldn't know until both of our heads had been chewed off like an overused shew toy. That is probably one of the worst ideas you have ever had, next to the time you…" He didn't let me finish.

"Okay, we all know about everything that I have done, but that doesn't change the fact that you really need to sleep." I did, but there was no way I was letting him take control of the wheel, especially after how short his little nap was. I was going to drive this car, and there was no arguing it. Because if there is one thing I know for sure, it is that Annabeth Chase never loses. I didn't care what he wanted. I was going to get my way and he was just going to have to deal with it, like always.

"Shut up Seaweed Brain, I know exactly what I want, and let me tell you, what I want is certainly not sleep. What I _do_ want however is to get to your Mother's before sunrise." Hopefully if I showed him the big picture he would understand. Nope, that is the complete opposite of what he did.

The idiot ran like Arachne was behind him and leaped into the car on the driver's side, making sure to slam and lock the door behind him. Great. Even though I was annoyed, I still had to admit this was one of his better plans, at least compared to others.

I entered the car on the passenger side and gave him my best, _I am so going to kill you later_, look and he smiled like an idiot. Gods, that boy was getting on my nerves. But when the car engine hummed to life, my worries were forgotten, and the back seat began to look awfully good. Maybe he was right, and although I will never admit it out loud, the score is now Percy: 1, Annabeth: 99,999,999,999.

_Percy_

This was it. Finally, after what seems like half a day driving, Annabeth and I pulled into the parking lot of My Mother and Paul's apartment. We were completely exhausted and really just wanted to get in and curl up on the couch, but knowing my Mom, that wasn't going to happen. Instead I would be getting a four hour lecture about what and what and what not was aloud, such as, well… getting a tattoo. Which she would totally freak out about knowing my mother. Annabeth and I climbed up the stairs to the room and I put my finger on the door. The knocker was still the same brass ring I had always shaken. The paint on the door was still the same blue-gray tint that I loved. It seemed that everything was completely unchanged, but I knew better than to think that. The last time I had shown up at these doors I had thought that I was done with fighting Titans and Giants, but little did I know that life was about to get a lot more complicated.

I shook the knocker, and at four o' clock in the morning, the door opened to reveal a very distraught looking Paul. He still was looking back into the apartment, as if checking if anyone else was up.

"Hello, what in the world could you possibly want at this…" Paul was cut off when he looked up. Our eyes met, and for a minute I don't think he thought it was actually me, maybe a cruel trick played by a neighbor. After about thirty seconds he looked on the brink of tears, and engulfed me in a huge hug, but not without actually starting to cry.

"Sa…Sal…Sally, you might want to come here!" he yelled as he choked back tears. My Mom came running in, expecting some horrible monster to have shown up at the door. She was surprised to say the least when she saw both Annabeth and I at the doorframe. Immediately she ran towards me, and ran me over with hug, at the same time, Paul switched over to hug Annabeth. I was finally back home. Well, as home as you can get while spending your life chasing after monsters who all want to eat your brains out.

The next hour or so was an emotional one. There were several times when everyone in the room was in tears, surprisingly including Annabeth. We talked about Gaea, giants, Bob, Leo, Frank, Hazel, Piper, Jason, and Coach Hedge. Although we did leave out some details such as, the place that must not be named, or that one time in… okay, I think that's really all I need to say there. Anyway, it just felt good to see my Mom again, even if most twenty year olds wouldn't normally say that. But yet again, when have I ever been classified as normal? Things did take an interesting turn when she noticed the big SPQR tattoo on my upper arm. It went a little like this:

"Perseus Jackson! If that is a permanent tattoo… oh Gods! You better pray to your father that I don't kill you! What were you thinking?! Annabeth, was there no way you could convince him not to do this! Honestly, at least you have some power over hi-"and that was the moment when all Hades broke lose.

"Are you serious? Percy, as my stepson and student, I have always expected that you would know be-"And then, it was Annabeth's turn white as a ghost, as if she was remembering things that were far to painful to process. Then I thought about it, I mean, actually thought. I had gotten that during the time when Hera had been stupid enough to separate us. As many times as she told me that the set-up was not my fault, I still blamed myself for that event, and everyone after. Well, most of them at least. She cut in after that.

"It really isn't Percy's fault, they mark every one of the legion with that tattoo, or really, burn." She finished the end of her sentence in a small squeak, and I really couldn't blame her, she was think of _that_ place, and that was enough to drive anyone crazy. It was literally a living version of Hades, because in reality, that was what it was. I would walk through Tartarus a million times if it meant that Annabeth would never have to again, but I'm not saying that I would enjoy it.

"Oh, well, still! I expect better of you, Percy! Now, I guess that that subject is behind us, so it is like, 5:00 in the morning, and you two must be exhausted. There is no way that you are staying anywhere in the city but here, so we do have a spare in the back, or if you would rather take the couch, that would be alright with both Paul and I, but please Annabeth, you have to stay here." Being the wise and independent girl she was, of course my girlfriend saw this as an excellent point to argue.

"Oh, no Sally, I could never do that to you and Paul, I really can just stay at the hotel down the street, I really don't want to be any trouble." I took that as my cue to say a smart comment in return.

"You know, Annabeth, if you are staying at a hotel, I just might have to leave and stay with you." Her annoyed expression showed that she had no patience for Seaweed Brain comments like my own at the moment.

"Percy, there is no way that is going to happen, you need to stay over here. I however, can stay at the hotel." Ha, Annabeth might win often, but my Mom has never lost either, well, besides in the battle of getting me to clean my room.

"Annabeth, sweetheart, I refuse to let you leave, now pick a bed before I pick for you, and trust me, you really don't want me to do that." I think she might have actually won.

"Alright, fine, I'll take the couch, but I don't want you to bother with adding any extra blankets, I can do that on my own." Classic Wise Girl, but you know what, I will never expect any other reaction than that from her.

_Percy_

It felt so good to finally sleep in my own bed again. My room hadn't changed a bit, other than the fact that for once it was clean beyond any of my talents. The silence of sleep came fast, as did the illusion of dreams. There were never such nights of peace as a Demigod, and this was no exception. The dreams were never ending, as were the memories that they possessed. Their faces. Their cold, lifeless faces flashed before my eyes. Every. Last. One. Those who I had personally killed, and indirectly killed. They all looked into my eyes and gave me their curse as many had in _that place._ Each one put a shovel full of dirt in my grave, and along with it my breath, and they didn't stop until I had started suffocating, heaving in and out with the dirt filling my lungs. I couldn't breathe, I had to wake up. And I did, but not the way I had expected to.

I woke up to the sound of shrill screaming, but it was not mine as I had guessed it to be. I knew that voice too well. _Annabeth_. I pulled back the covers, shoved on an old tee shirt and ran down the hall as fast as my mortal body could take me. When I finally reached the family room I saw her tense body lying on the couch, she was jerking around, as if running from a monster while having her legs frozen to the ground. I immediately went over and kneeled at the side of the couch and whispered the only sentence I could manage.

"A…Anna…Annabeth, pl-please wake up. Please, it was only a dream. Annabeth! Please!" I almost shouted the last few words, and probably just woke up my Mom and Paul, but it would be all worth it if my Wise Girl would just wake up. As if on cue, she opened her eyes in alert. She looked around as if waiting for a dangerous monster to materialize in the room and lash out at her. But after about thirty seconds of looking, she saw me and burst into tears. I couldn't help myself but to reach over and hold her. Her tears made me want to curl up in a corner and ask what I had done to wrong the Gods badly enough to cause her pain. But I knew well enough from experience that these were the effects of the nightmares, not a curse sent by an angry God or Goddess. She was light, too light, so light that it worried me, but I had other issues at the moment. Even when she cried she was beautiful. She was shaking badly, as if she had experienced her own personal earthquake. She turned to me and bore into my eyes with her gray stormy irises.

"Per…Percy, they…they were trying to…I mean they…you were…all my fault." Although I didn't catch half of the words she said, I knew exactly what she meant.

"No, no, no. Annabeth, listen to me, Wise Girl. Look at me, I'm here aren't I? Nothing will ever be all of your fault, because I will always be at your side. Do you hear me? Come on, Annabeth, you know better than to do this to yourself." She looked at me for a minute at a loss for words. Then I just pulled her down into a hug. We stayed that way for about three minutes until we gained some company. My Mother came running down the hallway and into the room.

"Percy, what's wrong, I heard yours and Annabeth's voices?" She got one good look at Annabeth and understood the situation perfectly. She knew exactly what was wrong, and didn't question my methods of helping her, as I had done so many nights before when the nightmares had come. She left as quickly as she had arrived, and left with a look that didn't say _don't you dare_ as I had expected, but instead said _I'm sorry._ The look was genuine, and then I knew that she accepted that Annabeth was better in my hands, my experienced hands than she would be at the hands of someone who hasn't spent their whole life living at a camp with many kids that have the same problems as both Annabeth and I. So, we were left in the darkness to fend for ourselves. We just sat there, holding on to each other for dear life as we had done so many times in, well, nothing could compare the pain that I am feeling at the moment, so I guess I can say it. _Tartarus._

After a while she spoke again, this time wondering how I was doing. Why she had to ask this when she was the one who I had woken up from practically a bloody trance. That was truly one of the reasons I loved her. No matter how badly she was hurt, she was always worried about others, I swear to the Gods, one day she would get her foot cut off, and I would get a punch to the stomach, and she would still ask if I was going to be alright. I didn't know what to do. There was no way I could leave her alone now, not after this little episode. But yet again, it was only six in the morning, and I had planned to sleep until at least one. Then I had an idea. I left and walked into the hall for a minute to grab a pillow and a few blankets from the hallway closet. I walked back quickly, for I knew that once I was gone, the darkness was consuming. When I came back, I put two of the blankets on Annabeth, and two on the couch opposing hers. This way I could be close to her, close enough to feel comfortable hearing the steady rate of her breathing, close enough to see her face as she slept peacefully, but not close enough to make my Mom mad, because Gods know what would happen to me if I ever truly made her mad, and Annabeth was like the daughter she never had.

I gave her a kiss, and we moved to sit on my "bed" we just sat there in the darkness, holding on to our sanity together. In time, I felt a heavy weight on my shoulder that could only be Annabeth. Soon after that I heard the beautiful sound of her deep breathing and took that as my cue to carry her back to her couch. I picked her up bridal style and sat her down as gently as possible.

She looked so innocent. Childlike really. It's funny how in our sleep we look the youngest, the least scarred. Yet, sleep is the one action we can never seem to control, never seem to get enough of, as it always arrives fast, but leaves even faster, as most things in life. Innocence is over worked, always used as something to describe a victim of the court. But in fact, innocence was so much more than that. It appeared most often in children, for they are the select few of this world that have not yet been awakened to the hardship and cruel reality of the world. They are incredibly pure, possibly the purest of all of us. As is innocence. I believe that innocence is the greatest enemy of our world today, yet it is incredibly rare. I guess that is why the old wish to retain their youth, to gain back the skin that has been stripped of the simple weapon. To gain back the joy and innocence of better days, days when their mother's did their laundry and played with the dolls that they had stored in their bedroom closets. I like to induce myself in the sunshine and daisies to drown the night and show myself that reality does have a weakness. Everything has a weakness.

_Annabeth_

When I awoke in the morning I expected to wake up in an empty room at about one or two in the afternoon. However, I did not expect to wake up at four in the afternoon with Percy snoring quite loudly on the sofa diagonal to mine. I looked through the shutters on the window and saw blinding sunlight emanating from the sun that was high in the sky at the moment. It was silent. Beautifully peaceful, it felt as if this life was a dream, and at any moment the silence would shatter like a glass orb and from it would release all Hades. Suddenly a pair of large hands grabbed me from behind and dragged me onto the couch again. I looked up at my captor and noticed the bright green eyes of none other than my very own Seaweed Brain. He tackled me and then kissed me lightly.

"Why hello there, _Annie_, sleep well my dear?" Oh my Gods, he did not just call me Annie. That boy is officially dead meat.

"I told you _never_ call me Annie. If you refuse to use my name the way it was put on my Godly birth certificate, you will find yourself with no reason to say my name at all, not even my real one." He seemed to be confused for a minute, but once he got my threat, he had to use a smart comeback.

"Well in that case, I guess I will have to call you Beth, it's the only other part of your name I can use." Okay, now he was really dead. Really Percy? Beth? That is just insulting.

"There is no way in Hades you are going to call me Beth. If you do, I will personally have your head on a silver plate. Trust me, because you know that I have that ability. I really thi-" Just then he cut me off with a kiss. Real mature Percy. Real mature. It just so happened that he was not only extremely immature, but also had extremely bad timing. I started to hear footsteps soon after he had, well, "shut me up".

"Good morning you two. Or should I say good afternoon? Oh, you can carry on, don't let me interrupt your fun." At that both Percy and I turned a very deep shade of red. Well this was awkward. Percy stood up and motioned for me to take his hand to help myself get up. I gladly declined, for as nice as he was being, I could get up on my own, thank you very much. We headed over to the kitchen and Percy leapt up on the granite countertop.

"So, what do you want to do today miss Wise Girl? We have pretty much all day to do whatever we want. We could go to London, take a ride on a magical unicorn, but a new lamp for the apartment, go and shine random people's shoes for a highly overpriced amount, defeat Lord Voldemort, of hey, you know, go to the park. Although, I must say, that last option sounds pretty boring."

"What ever happened to a simple, "let's stay home and read a book and watch some Finding Nemo and Lion King"?" I really did just want one simple day to relax, one day with absolutely no monster attacks, a day to just work on my blueprints for a new building in Olympus. Speaking of which, I had been skipping work a lot lately, but I had a decent excuse. You know, since I was off killing giants for the Gods themselves. I had several interesting names to call the Gods, all of which would probably get me blasted off of the face of the earth. I could imagine that Percy had a whole list for Hera, because I sure did.

Percy and I discussed the whole "what are we doing today" topic, and as always, I won with my idea of doing absolutely nothing. We just say around and lounged, simply enjoying each other's company for the heck of it. I had not actually had this calm of a day since Percy's sixteenth birthday. He was almost twenty one now. It was the sad life of a demigod. We lived for about eighteen years on average, and usually died in battle before our twenty fifth birthday. We had a short life span, and a pretty rough life. Rough to the point of death being a wonderful occurrence and a simple paradise. That is if you make it to Elysium. Most of us I would imagine would, since we practically spent our lives doing the God's dirty work.

I had brought myself to attempt to figure out what the heck Percy and I were going to do once we left his Mother's. Probably get an apartment of our own within three miles of the camp. There was nothing left for us to do. We had survived all three hundred of the quests the Gods had sent us on in the hope to get us pulverized by evil forces. I could also build whatever we wanted. Or at least design it. I could see if Leo could construct it with reinforced base anchoring and structural reinforcements including the use of celestial bronze. It was as simple as that. This plan was going to work. I don't know why I am so surprised, because none of my plans have actually failed. I guess it was the surprise of achieving the impossible dream. An actual future. This was it. We were actually going to grow old together. Hear the patter of tiny feet on the floor that wasn't our siblings. See gray that wasn't from holding up the sky, but actual age.

We would live in peace (for the most part anyway). No more stupid quests. No more dam (pun intended) monsters knocking at the door every other minute. Maybe we would get a whole hour of silence! As sad as it was, I was excited just get bragging rights with the Aphrodite girls. Yep, Annabeth Chase the total nerd girl is married to Perseus Jackson, the real Percy Jackson. You know the guy that helped her save the world like, what, three thousand times? Probably more. I heard that… well, the list would go on and on. There was no stopping us. Really. After a trip through _that place,_ you were pretty much unbreakable.

What doesn't kill you really does make you stronger. You take those experiences and mold them into something you can use in life. You don't dwell on the moment for too long, because if you do, you'll miss what happens in the present, and the present is more valuable than any ideas of the past or future. You can only live in fear for so long until the fear becomes you. Consumes you, and pretty much takes over your life. Drowns even those who are immune to the effects of water. That's why you simply can't let it.

_Sally _

I had to admit, it was an extremely scary sight to see your son trying to comfort his screaming girlfriend. I don't know what state I expected the two to be in. Maybe they were scarred, too skinny, and their eyes had a sunken in affect, but I didn't dwell on the fact that it was possible that there was a significant reason that they appeared that way. I never should have separated them. I should have known that they wouldn't have an easy night. Heck, no one would ever be able to live the same way again if they had been through half of the things that my son and that girl had been through. At first I had though that Annabeth couldn't sleep, and neither could Percy, so they probably were just watching a movie. Wow, was I wrong. At the first sight of them sitting in the dark in that position, you could have thought that I had two zombies sitting in my living room. They looked so depressed, and I really didn't even want to think about the fact that this might be their future. It was possible that they would never outgrow this, but one has to live with hope. Gods, they had been together all day. They never leave each other's side, for any reason at all. If one needed a drink, the other followed them into the kitchen. It they had to leave each other, they spent five minutes saying goodbye, and were back together within forty five seconds.

I hadn't seen them all day, except for the few times they came to the kitchen for a small snack. They really needed to eat more than they were at the moment, so I told them that they had to go out for dinner somewhere. I didn't care where it was, as long as they ordered something with higher calories than a cracker. I had to pretty much force them out the door, and that didn't even work until I threatened to shove everything in the house down their throats. Paul and I had a long discussion while they were gone about what the living situations would be for the next, well, however long Percy and Annabeth decided to stay. Although I might help with that decision a little if they wanted to leave to early or stayed too long. I loved my son, but sometimes he had the brains of his father. As early as it was, I was anxious for grandkids; Percy would kill me for saying anything like that out loud, but it would be fun just to get a reaction out of his thick skull. I could be that mean to Percy, but never to Annabeth. The current situation made me really hesitant to say anything at all, for the fear that what little they had left may shatter, and the progress made so far, not that there was much, but at least they were still speaking to people.

After their dinner, they were a little more talkative to say the most. They looked relatively happy for the first time since early this morning. I decided to share what Paul and I had been talking about earlier. There was no way in Olympus that I was going to let what happened last night happen again, these two were in desperate need of some sleep. I came up with the solution of using the bunk beds the spare bedroom. That way any problems could be quickly resolved without being up all night trying to get rid of the memories. They could stay for about two weeks, but after that I was going to have to make them leave. As much as I loved both of them, they really needed to move past this experience, and I was secretly looking forward to wedding invitations, but yet again my thick headed son was going to need a very large push if any of this is to ever happen. As predicted, when I brought up the subject of the future I got quite the reaction from the pair.

"WHAT? I mean… okay that's great and all, but umm…" That son of mine really had no brain when it came to the concept of focusing on a single subject. I blame the ADHD, and I am beginning to think those blue cookies are rotting his brain. I mean, we do need to discuss this, but I guess it could wait a little longer. I was waiting for a reaction, but that never came, so when they got up and left, I let them. After a while I could hear talking coming from the bedroom. I tried so hard to just let them be, but as you know, curiosity killed the cat, and I was no exception. I walked over and stood at the base of the doorframe. I heard the whispering coming from the inside.

"…_I know but…"_

_"We really do need to go soon. We will attract monsters sooner or later, and I don't want to be near my Mother, or you in that matter when that happens."_

_ "Percy, you can be such an idiot sometimes." _She got that right._ "There is no way you're ever going to get rid of me, Seaweed Brain. As long as we're together, remember? I can't go back to camp, we both know that if we do, well, things could end up…bad. I can't wake up any more of my siblings. I don't care what we do, as long as it doesn't have a negative effect on anyone."_ Thank you, someone gets my logic.

_"I know, but I think that camp would be the safest place right now."_

_ "Percy, no! We really can't take advantage of the camp anymore. We're twenty, almost twenty one, and don't say that we can go to New Rome, because for one, we burned that bridge, and two, the whole city has actually been burned. You know, there is that three mile…" _

_ "You know, Wise Girl, that actually isn't a half bad idea. Not that any of your ideas weren't goods, but you know, this could actually work. Really, actually work." _Huh, wonder where she got _that_ idea. Not from me of course. It's not like I just suggested that in the living room. At least they had finally come to some sort of agreement.

_"Well, I guess that we could look in the area, I mean, we could ask Jason, Leo, and Piper if they want to move in with us. We could all share the rent, and that way we could several people in case of a major attack."_

Oh my Gods! This was actually going to work, and maybe, just maybe, I might finally get what I want. It would be amazing to finally see those two get a happy ending. They really did deserve it. Those two had a harder life than all of those Gods combined, yet somehow they were never left alone. They had done everything anyone had wanted them to do, and more, therefore, it would only be fair that things finally settled down. It is pretty customary that after one war you let a hero live in peace. If you still didn't after two, that was just cruel.


	2. In With The New

_Percy_

I stepped into the new house that Annabeth had ended up designing for all of us, and us being seven people, she had designed quite large house. The first floor consisted of a large kitchen, two bathrooms, a giant living room, and with the whole "having seven demigods in one house", we had to have a demigod rec room. The rec room had a cabinet with a large supply of both nectar and ambrosia, a whole wall of weapons, and a fountain like that of my cabin to make easy Iris messages to camp, or anywhere else for that matter. The next floor had two bathrooms and three bedrooms, along with an in-home library for Annabeth. The first bedroom was Piper's, which consisted of orange walls, an ornate dresser (a gift from her mother), a loft bed with a desk under the stairs, and a large mirror. The second bedroom was Annabeth's, which consisted of a large book case, a desk, a wall computer compartment, a bulletin board to keep her blueprints organized, grey walls with owl decorations, and a bunk bed. The last bedroom on the floor was Hazel's, and consisted of beige walls, a book case, a twin bed, a dresser, and many picture frames. The third floor had all of the boy's rooms and a small workshop for Leo. Frank's room was painted dark green and was covered in war strategy diagrams, had a book case, desk, a bunk bed, a large closet (for weapons, not clothing), and a corner with a couple of chairs. Jason's room was painted half purple and half orange, had a single bed, a desk, many cabinets, a computer desk, and a book shelf, along with pictures of Piper and him. Leo's room was painted red and had about a million bulletin boards placed everywhere. Festus' head was in a case in the corner of the room, and the rest of the room had a drawing board, a dresser, a walk-in-closet, and a king sized bed. My room was painted, of course, blue, and had tridents everywhere. I had a loft, blue dresser, a gaming console for whenever Leo and I got bored, and tons of picture frames of people from camp.

Annabeth had really outdone herself. Each door was painted with the symbol of our Godly parent, and would only open if we typed in the correct code. As a Demigod, you could never be too careful. One look at the new house, and I could tell, everyone loved it. Everyone had gone to their respective rooms and had started to decorate and move their belongings into their rooms. Luckily, as to thank us for our service, the Gods had paid all of our expenses. I was just finishing putting up a picture of Annabeth and I when she came running into my room. Her face looked as if she had seen a ghost, which was entirely possible in the Demigod world.

"Per...sp…spi…" Oh great. Spider. I sprinted to her room as fast as I could, and made a quick stop to the bathroom to get a tissue to crush the beast. When I arrived at the room, I found that most things were in their place, or were, before she had thrown them at the small arachnid. With a quick motion, I crushed the spider under the tissue and threw it in the trash.

"NO, no spider, not even dead ones will set any of their eight legs on this floor." With that, I picked the tissue back up and flushed it. She embraced me momentarily, thanked me, and then went back to decorating. That was it? That was all I got? Well, all in a day's work for a hero like Percy Jackson I guess. Being done with my room gave me a chance to explore a bit. I eventually came to Leo's room, who was muttering something about fluffy bunnies. Wait…not fluffy bunnies, a girl. Calypso. He was going back for her. I knew he loved her, but I had no idea he had it this bad.

"Hey, dude," I started. Leo jumped about three feet in the air. "When are you leaving?"

"Wait, what? I mean, yeah, but, wait…how did you know I was leaving?" Guess I caught him off guard.

"Well, it did help that you were talking to yourself. When are you leaving?"

"Jeez, I have got to stop doing that. Anyway, so yeah, I was planning on leaving tomorrow morning."

"Is that why all of your things are still in boxes?"

"Well, kind of, part of it was that I was just too lazy to start. I was planning to tell the crew at dinner."

"Good, and Leo, good luck." I meant it. He was obviously head over heels for this girl, which was something I could never be. When I was on her island, it was great, and very peaceful, but even then, some part of me knew that I loved Annabeth, and that I had to get back to her. Still, I was glad someone finally was going to free her, even if it was impossible. It's funny how many things we say are impossible. We all overestimate the power of the impossible.

In my experience, there is no such thing as something that is impossible. Nothing is impossible, but we get to that conclusion when we give up too easily, always expecting everything in life to be as easy as everything else we have previously faced. Stopping, simply because we are afraid of reaching our breaking point. Our level of intellect is partly measured by the questions we ask. If we give up, or go on in life. If we let ourselves heal, or if we curl up in a whole of pillows and stay there, afraid of ever getting hurt again. If you simply chose to open yourself up to the possibility of being okay again, a whole new world is introduced. One where you not only live, but you thrive.

The impossible is something that is overused. We say impossible for far too many things. "It is impossible for magic to exist." Mmm Hmm. Ever meet Frank Zhang? Do you have a new answer? The mortals have their own kind of magic. And no, I am not talking about magicians. Even mortals can experience miracles. A loved one living past a death day. Even the crying face of a baby can bring joy. Heck, a drawing made by a four year old can create a miracle. There are small truths hidden in everyday objects. Something as simple as a piece of paper can inspire someone. Can create a revolution. Can do so many things, on so many levels, not even the greatest of philosophers could decipher the true meaning. I guess that's why we're here, to find that meaning. To figure out exactly how many layers life has. To decipher the hidden codes and the patterns of life. To figure out in the vastness of the universe, what our significance is. I have yet to figure out mine.


	3. Ogygia

_Leo_

I promised her. I had to. I had no choice, not that I needed one anyway. I was going back for her, and there was no arguing, and not because I would die if I never went back to the island. She was waiting, and in my opinion, she had been waiting far too long. I paced the Argo II that had been recently reconstructed to the best of my ability. I had put Festus' head back on and installed a new system enabling me to find my way back to Ogygia, using the crystal that I had taken from Calypso's cave. The plan was flawless, for the most part at least. Gods, I was doing this. I was finally going to get her.

The way I saw it, to find a land that cannot be found, you need to be pretty lost. So, I just traveled east for about an hour until I was good and lost. Then I started taking the readings I was getting from the crystal system into account. I don't care if I'm out here for years before I find her, but, it would be preferred that I didn't smell like an old man who needs to take a shower when I see the one girl who has ever actually and purely liked me, for who I am, and not just because I make jokes about my life to protect my personal standpoint. From the readings I was getting, I would be in Ogygia in about a month, which was a little long, but I guess that was better than a year, or a decade, or an eon. All I know is that in a month, I will no longer be alone. I'll no longer be that seventh wheel. I might get to be the sixth wheel! Oh, or the fifth wheel! Even th-

"Ah, hello there , lovely morning isn't it?" I looked up to see the idiot who had interrupted my thought train. Yep, none other than Mr. FedEx himself. Hermes. What the heck did he want with me? Oh Gods, have I done anything to anger any of the Gods in the last twenty four hours? Well, let's see… Sensing my discomfort, he spoke up.

"Never fear, my boy! You haven't done anything wrong, at least not yet. I am actually here to reward you, and…wait…ugh, there was something else I was supposed to say. Oh, yeah, this is a thank you from your Dad. He's proud of you little man, real proud. So, I heard you wanted to go to the realm of Miss Calypso? Say, isn't she the one we imprisoned 'cause her father's-"

"Atlas, yeah. And you got it right. I want to go to Ogygia. So, do you have a problem with that or something?" I don't care if the freaking lord of the sky has a problem with me going back for Calypso. I would return with that girl, or I would die trying.

"Me? Nope, I have no problem with it. Hades however- well, that's a story for another time. But anyway, so, on with that gift. You said Ogygia, right? That's where you're heading?" So? What's it to him?

"Yeah, but why does it matter? You said you didn't mind." And then it dawned on me. Hermes was the god of transportation. He wanted to know where I was going. A thank you from my Dad. He was sending me to Ogygia, and it sure wasn't going to take a month to reach the island. I would be surprised if it took over five minutes.

"Look buddy, your old man wanted me to make this a faster trip so you could, how did he put it? Oh, live in peace I think. Well, anyway, you ready?" Ha. Am I ready? Holy Zeus, I've been ready for a year.

"Yeah, I guess so." Play it cool Leo, don't squeal. Hold it in. You can do this.

"Good luck, Hero." And with that, I was sucked into an inky black darkness, I seemed to be traveling in some kind of interstellar vacuum. You know, like in the Star Wars movies. As soon as it had started, it seemed to have stopped, depositing me in blinding light. Sand. There was sand between my fingers. Water. There was water between my toes. I was in Ogygia. Calypso.

I scanned my surroundings, and found that no other living creature was on the beach. Oh, I could have a little fun with this. I went to the base of the beach and lied down with half of my body in the ocean, and half on the sand. I morphed my expression to look in pain. I took my knife and made a gash in my tee shirt. Now for the final touch.

"Cal…C…Help…please…not…" I said in a strained voice. I saw a shadowy figure run out onto the beach. I was her. I almost smiled, but then I remembered that I was supposed to be in pain. She was still sprinting over, and was almost to where I was lying. Eventually she got to the point where she was practically standing on top of me.

"Leo? Oh Gods, Leo! You came back, oh Gods, what's wrong, you look like you're in pain." She kneeled over to examine me. This was my chance. I shot up and kissed her. She looked surprised, than mad, then just accepted things as they were. After a minute or two, we broke apart and she gave me a well-deserved slap. Oh Sunshine, I know you too well. She was so beautiful. Exactly as I remembered her. Bratty, annoying, and really hotheaded. Perfect.

"YOU, YOU idiot! You came back!? Why? You'll never leave with me. Wait, is that…no, no, no. Leo Valdez. You DID NOT bring a ship with you. Oh my Gods! You do have a brain!"

"Surprise, surprise, Sunshine. Want to get off this stinking island?" Please say yes. Please say yes. Please say yes.

"Are you kidding me? Move your scrawny legs, Valdez, we're getting on that boat and GOING FAR AWAY." Ah, that was my Calypso. And I wouldn't have her any other way.


End file.
